The need for alternative sources of energy is well-recognized and ever-increasing. Innumerable skilled inventors have contributed to advances in alternative energy power generation. Systems and methods have been disclosed for harvesting energy from the Sun, from the wind, and from the movement of rivers and other bodies of water. With each advance in alternative energy, the need for fossil fuels is reduced and humankind's negative impact on the environment diminished.
It is further known to attempt to harvest energy by introducing a gas into a column of liquid to induce entrained movement of the liquid with the upward movement of the gas due to its buoyancy and then to harness the kinetic and potential energy of the moving liquid, such as through a fluid turbine. For instance, in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0303282 of Ziegenfuss, a water cycling system is taught wherein an air compressor is used as a motive force and a turbine is used for electric power generation. A water piping subsystem establishes a circuitous loop with one upward flowing side and one downward flowing side. The air compressor injects air into a lower portion of the upward flowing side to induce entrained flow of the water, and a turbine disposed in the downward flowing side receives flowing water to convert the kinetic energy therein to electric power. In a similar vein, U.S. Pat. No. 4,392,062 to Bervig discloses disposing an electrical generating device within the flow of a U-shaped conduit with an injector for injecting a lower density substance into fluid within one leg of the U-shaped conduit to produce a flow of the fluid. The flow of the fluid actuates the electrical generating device so that the energy within the moving fluid is harvested into electric power. Still further, International Publication No. WO2014110160 of Markie et al. is directed to a System for Generating Electricity wherein a first fluid within a holding tank receives a less dense second fluid to induce an upward flow of the first fluid within an elongate housing. The flow of the first fluid induces rotation of a turbine thereby yielding electrical energy.
While the foregoing advances in alternative energy are useful, they do suffer from a number of limitations and critical disadvantages. For instance, without the Sun, photovoltaics are of little effect. Wind turbines operate only in sufficient winds, are prone to malfunction, and are expensive to maintain. Still further, wave power generators and river turbines can be installed and operated only where the body of water exists and are themselves dependent on the flow and movement of naturally moving water.
Still further, prior art cyclical power generation systems induced into operation by the injection of a buoyant fluid within a working fluid have exhibited limitations in effectiveness and operation that have heretofore prevented widespread adoption. Many such motive fluid power generators exhibit high losses in power and are highly inefficient. Such previously disclosed motive fluid power generation systems are limited by, among other things, the reliance on a single column of working fluid to be induced into cyclical movement. Furthermore, motive fluid power generation systems of the prior art have demonstrated little ability or recognition of the need for enhancing the density of the working fluid prior to downward cyclical movement of the same by actively removing entrained buoyancy fluid. Additionally, many prior art motive fluid power generation systems are highly complex in structure and operation and are entirely reliant on a single flow path. Accordingly, failure or required maintenance of components of the system are common and result in a complete system shutdown.
In view of the foregoing, it will be recognized that, despite the useful efforts of many skilled inventors, there remains a need in the art for an alternative energy power generation system that does not rely on any outside factors, that can be installed and continuously operated in widely varied locations, and that is sufficiently efficient in operation to represent an advance in humankind's ability to generate available electric power.